Kristen Ghodsi, ethnographer: “We are too tired to imagine” | health and wellness

There is life beyond the exhausted and uncertain monogamous couple, who have two children whom they are barely raising in isolation in a modest middle-class single-family home. There are other possible worlds and even better ones. You just have to dream about them, encourages American ethnographer Kristen Ghodsi (Patterson, New Jersey, 53 years old). This professor of Russian and East European studies at the University of Pennsylvania has just published everyday utopias (Captain Swing), a round trip across the last two millennia of human history in search of other ways of co-existence that teach us to live better. “This is not a self-help book about being happy. This is a book about the understanding that other humans made the world the way it is today and collectively, we can make the world what it will be in the future,” he warned in a videoconferencing conversation.

Ghodsi explores change projects to change the established way of life. And remember that today’s world is full of realities that were once pipe dreams: For example, divorce was once a crazy idea; And public schools too. Jesus Christ was a utopian dreamer and Buddha was another. Ethnologists agree that daydreaming is not so strange or crazy. And in these times, he says, it is even necessary.

Ask. Why do we need utopia?

Answer. because they take us out remain so, they make us lose the idea that the world we live in today is static and cannot change. And it is these dreamers and dreamers who can take us forward. Utopia is an incredibly productive concept for us to think about different ways of living in the world.

Why. Give me some examples of utopian demands that may become reality in the future.

R. Universal and free solar energy. Now, there are many economic interests that oppose making photovoltaic panels free for all because a large niche where profits are generated would disappear and many people would lose a lot of money. But we can eliminate the need for fossil fuels and generate some form of electricity in countries where the sun is abundant, for example Spain. If we had the idea that electricity, solar energy, is just a right of citizenship, then the government would give you solar panels and collect your energy. Similarly, living in families that are not necessarily our blood relatives, such as living with our chosen families, friends, neighbors, coworkers, peers, whatever, sounds pretty radical right now, but Actually it’s not that radical: we’ve done it in the past and it will be a very natural change.

Why. What is utopia? the haters,

R. Utopians always have enemies because they challenge those with wealth and privilege. In the case of Jesus Christ, he was challenging the Roman Empire. In the case of Buddha, he challenged the traditional Hindu caste system. In the case of people like Marx and Engels (the fathers of communism), they were challenging bourgeois power and capitalism. They dream of ways of being in the world that will undermine the structural systems that maintain the wealth and privilege of a particular elite. And, of course, those elites will fight back. So, if you are a very rich white person living in the United States, utopia is not a good thing for you.

Why. For example, if you are Donald Trump.

R. If you’re Donald Trump, or Mark Zuckerberg, or Elon Musk, utopia is not going to be your thing. You will fight against Utopia as best you can. But for ordinary people, for those of us who live in the world that Musk and Trump are trying to create, utopia is the only way we can imagine a better future beyond Donald Trump and Elon Musk of the world. Will be able to work together for. ,

“Patriarchy evolved to make extreme inequalities sustainable over time”

Why. What does a better world look like?

R. On a collective level, there is a better world for the human species to survive on the planet. Right now, we are facing very serious problems: the climate crisis, the epidemic of loneliness and social isolation, extreme inequality, the care crisis and, in addition, the technological crisis with artificial intelligence, robots and automation. We are really facing five major existential crises and the utopian vision of the good life is about ensuring that humans still survive on the planet for the next 400 years. But I also believe that, on a personal level, the most important factor in determining whether you live a happy and healthy life are your relationships with other people. Therefore, any utopian vision of the future that cares about the human race and our health and well-being will promote cooperation and connection over competition and isolation.

Why. In the book he reviews various options for coexistence and highlights the impact of what he calls the “two P’s”: patriarchy and patriarchy. Is patriarchy the worst enemy of all?

R. Yes. Patriarchy works very well with capitalism and creates a set of family relationships that allows two things: On the one hand, it allows the inter-generational transfer of wealth and privileges from parents to their legitimate children. and therefore increases inequality and prevents us from sharing; Second, patriarchy creates a world in which the next generation is raised for free, mostly by women in the private sector. And capitalism benefits because it needs workers and consumers, but doesn’t want to pay for them. Patriarchy is a system that has evolved over time to perpetuate extreme inequalities in society.

Why. Explains far utopian experiments and other experiments set in the current system, such as symbiosis, Is this model not a capitalist euphemism that protects uncertainty?

R. At this time, I think symbiosisHe Cohabitation And sharing wealth is a way for precarious people to survive in a brutal economic system that is creating a growing underclass. But I also think that these ways of being in the world create solidarity between people, which is ultimately going to be very dangerous for that economic system. He symbiosis Inducing poor or poor youth to live together is a kind of scam. But, for those who benefit from capitalism in the long term, it is dangerous because it teaches the young and uncertain that there are other ways of being in the world that will ultimately undermine the system they try to preserve. are doing.

Why. Does the importance we place on single-family housing enslave us?

R. Yes. We have a very limited view of what it means to be a successful person. For a young person, it is your own home. One type of single-family home is envisioned. To maintain this ideal of the single-family home we continually purchase single-family cars and all of our personally owned items. And that’s great for capitalism, but very bad for the planet and our social interactions.

Why. Regarding loneliness, he says that it weakens our physical and mental health, but we still desire to have our own personal home. Are we masochists?

R. No, we are people who live with natural instincts and desire to achieve social status. We want to be loved and appreciated, to be considered successful. Owning our own single-family home is a symbol of success. We don’t do this because we want to isolate ourselves from each other. We really have to think about where this norm comes from and how to change it. The idea that we have a normal and natural way of living as a family, of living in a community, is foolish and ahistorical and completely against the anthropological record.

Why. He defends shared parenting beyond the nuclear family, but admits reluctance towards this model. Is the mother-child bond ideal?

R. Absolutely yes. If you are a woman and breastfeeding, it can be really disturbing to know that milk comes out with the crying of any baby, not just yours. People don’t talk about it. I’m not saying that attachment theory isn’t real: I think babies need a lot of touch and attention, but I don’t think it’s necessary to have a mother for it. Historically, many mothers died during childbirth, and if the mother-child bond were irreplaceable, we would have disappeared as a species. The mother-child relationship is highly idealized and overvalued because patriarchy and capitalism demand that women do all the work of raising children for free. They don’t want to pay them. They do not want to socialize this work. So the best way to get women to do it is to say that you do it for love. The idealization of motherhood is a way to ensure that women do not demand compensation or recognition for the important social reproductive work they do at home.

Why. Some utopian options have failed throughout history. Is there any point in being afraid of utopia?

R. We should fear any idea of ​​utopia as a complete project. What we know from history is that any utopia that stabilizes quickly becomes a dystopia. For utopia to work, you always have to imagine that it will be dynamic and changing.

“The idealization of motherhood is a way of ensuring that women do not demand compensation for their social work in the home.”

Why. Do we lack time to think about alternative futures?

R. For most of us, yes. we are very tired. On the international tour of this book, I was fascinated by the fact that people over 60 and under 25 are the most open-minded. Everyone in between is too tired to think about it. And I think it’s because young and old have time to read, to daydream, to imagine. For those of us in those middle years of the sandwich, it’s extremely hard to find time to sit down and think and daydream about how you can make your life a better experience. You’re just trying to survive day to day. And I find this very sad. Most of us are too tired for any imagination.

Why. You offer militant optimism. How do we connect with that?

R. Hope is an emotion, but it’s also a cognitive ability: You can imagine yourself in the future in a way that gives you the space to make that future a reality. When I talk about radical optimism, radical hope, it is not a change in perspective. This is not an emotional situation. It is a political commitment to the future. And the way to develop that political commitment is to share the possibility of change with others. In everything you do, you have to make a political commitment to make the world the way you think it will be better. And when I talk about radical optimism, I literally mean radical; In the sense that I refuse to tell people that the world is unchangeable.

I refuse to let people tell me that my personal anxiety, fear, and feelings of helplessness are not a structural problem, that they are just something wrong with my brain, and that I should take a pill to make it go away. This is a mental health crisis. My feelings of depression are a structural problem and require structural solutions. Therefore, instead of succumbing to despair and fear, we should use them to build a better future. Being a radical optimist is a moral commitment to the future: it’s about believing that today we can create the future we want to see.

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